While the answer to the above question is complicated, and is mainly an issue of low consumer demand and no economy of scale – with the new LivingHomes C6, we’re thrilled to see a mass-market prefab home that manages to reach affordability while also maintaining high quality design standards and a modern aesthetic.

In fact, LivingHomes’ newly released C6 is the most affordable LEED certified prefab to ever come to market, but the company’s game-changing ways date back more than half a decade ago when the company first made a name for itself with a stunning prefab home collaboration with famed architect Ray Kappe. The sustainable prefab “Living Home” that resulted from that collaboration was the first in the nation to achieve LEED Platinum, and it was the only home to win the AIA’s top sustainability award in 2007. LivingHomes has been hard at work over the last six years, churning out new designs frequently — all LEED Platinum rated — that have continued to push the boundaries with green design. But it’s the company’s latest efforts with the C6 Home that really stand to make an impact on a wider consumer base.

Unlike previous LivingHomes designs, which were price between $250-$300 per square foot, the new C6 Home manages to achieve an impressive $145 per square foot. This new benchmark of affordability allows the home to be available to a wider variety of potential prefab home buyers, including young families and other buyers with more modest budgets. LivingHome’s collaboration with the country’s largest prefab home manufacturer, Cavco, is what allowed the company to produce the most affordable green prefab on the market today.

“It has always been our most important goal to develop an affordable LivingHome,” said Steve Glenn, CEO of LivingHomes. “The C6 is not only our lowest cost LivingHome – it’s half the cost of current models – but it’s also the first to achieve our most important Z6 Environmental Goals, and, we believe it’s the first production home to feature Cradle-to-Cradle inspired materials and a LEED Platinum level environmental program. It’s also the easiest and fastest LivingHome to build.”

The C6, built by Cavco, is available in most states for $179,000, and can be fully constructed in less than two months and installed on-site in a day.

The design of the C6 is inspired by the homes built by developer Joe Eichler throughout California in the 50s and 60s. The layout of the C6 is organized around a courtyard that is accessible through a various points in the house and features an open floor plan that plays on building an outdoor/indoor lifestyle.

The new LivingHome was designed as part of a new partnership with Make It Right, a nonprofit founded by Brad Pitt and renowned architect William McDonough to build 150, Cradle to Cradle inspired LEED Platinum homes in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, the neighborhood hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each C6 will help support the efforts of Make It Right.

this is very exciting news. one of the greatest challenges of prefab really taking off has been the high per/sf costs. it’s great that this is a home that not only less than $200/sf, but that it’s LEED platinum. kudos to LivingHomes.

dan mendesFebruary 20, 2012 at 1:28 pm

at 179,000 it makes it so much cheaper to buy a plot of land and put one of these up then it is to buy a house that’s already built – at least where I live

Yuka YonedaFebruary 20, 2012 at 1:24 pm

$145/sq foot for a home of this caliber is really impressive. The C6 is really breaking down barriers with this low cost, high design home.